Gary Karr, a good man who put in some effort for Huckabee in South Carolina, mentions the veterans’ vote for McCain, plugs that old book, and offers an interesting bit of insight:

One bit of personal insight: Ex-Gov Beasley was urging the Huckabee campaign to make a major national security-oriented speech in military-oriented Charleston right after New Hampshire. The campaign wanted to, but it never got off the ground (the woes of having an underfunded effort). It might have been a credibility-building speech for Huckabee, perhaps enough to peel some votes away from Thompson. Huckabee would have never won Charleston, or the vets, but it might have done enough to broaden the appeal just enough.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, whatever happens from here on out, Mike Huckabee’s one of the few contenders this year that it’s easy to see coming back in 2012, either challenging an incumbent Republican or running against Hillary or Obama. If he does, I’ll bet we see many efforts on Huckabee’s part to broaden his appeal beyond Evangelicals – an important, but not sufficient, plurality in the GOP coalition.